Super Short Dandy Drabbles
by Bethofbells
Summary: Sometimes I get the inclination (possibly inspired by a bottle of wine) to ask for prompts for very short Dandy drabbles. I'll post them here.
1. Ah ha

"_I Kissed a Girl_?"

"What? No!"

"_Friday_?"

"That one song by that internet girl? Absolutely not. Ooh, look, there's _Born in the USA."_

"Ugh, gross. I'm not a hundred and five."

Betsy squeezed in between them, looking at the song selection on the tiny screen in front of them. "Since I made you two come up here together, I guess I should pick your song. You're taking forever." She scrolled through them. "Oh, this one is nice." She selected it without consulting then and hopped back down to her seat.

At the first couple notes Danny groaned and Mindy hopped up and down excitedly, grabbing the mic so she could start off the duet. "Danny, my mom and dad always do this one, wipe that frown off your face right now." She turned to the crowded bar and belted out the first line. "_Baby when I met there was peace unkown"_

Danny grabbed her arm, whispering loudly. "You're singing the man's part."

She ignored him, shoving her elbow into his side, continuing. "_I set out to get you with a fine tooth coooomb. I was soft inside. There was something going on." _She turned toward Danny, dramatically singing the next lines to him as he stared at the floor in mortification. God, he hadn't had enough beer for this. "_You do something to me that I can't explain. Hold me closer and I feel no pain. Every beat of my heart." _She nodded at him, expectantly, her eyebrows raised. He knew he was supposed to come in at this point.

He sighed hugely, and joined her at the mic. "_We got something going on."_

She laughed on the last couple words, but smiled up at him exuberantly, and suddenly this wasn't the most embarrassing thing he'd ever done, suddenly she was the only person in the room. She greedily took the mic back, totally enjoying being the center of attention.

They sang the rest of the song together, Mindy only needing to poke at Danny a few times to get him to really belt out a couple of the lines. By the end, he felt a smile being coaxed out of him, one that only Mindy had ever been able to produce. He thought he could even discern a flush, not from the heat of the bar, when they got to the middle, singing, "_Making love with each other, ah ha." _

At some point, they had turned away from the other people around them, and were solely singing to each other, lost in some sort of alternate universe. They reached the end of the song. _"And we rely on each other, ah ha. From one lover to another, ah ha._"

Suddenly the music cut off, and Danny was left, sweaty and panting staring down at Mindy's own shiny happy face. The smile there causing his stomach to flip. Still caught up in the moment, he reached forward and grabbed her face, still staring a moment before he crushed his lips down on hers, not worrying about the fact that they'd never discussed anything like this before.

Perhaps it was the slight beer buzz he still had, or maybe it was the camaraderie he felt were her in this moment, but he just wanted to pull her to him, and never let go. He'd deal with the consequences later. When he felt her slide her arms up around him, her hands making their way to his nape, her fingers curling into his hair, crushing his mouth closer to hers, he realized he'd probably made the best decision of his life.


	2. Catholic Wedding

"The Met?"

"Mindy."

"Central Park?"

"Mindy. Stop it."

"The Hamptons, on the beach? Gwen and Carl would totally let us do it at their vacay house."

"Are you even listening to me?"

She tosses her hair over her shoulder and continues to scroll through her phone, naming off the lists of places she'd made over the years. She'd never really wanted to get married in a church. It was so expected, so un-Mindy-like. "The empire state building on New Year's eve?"

"Can you be serious right now?" Danny needed her to listen to him about this. Sure, he'd acquiesced when she'd said she wanted to live together before they got married, even though his mother had nearly had an aneurism when he'd told her, but this was different. He was catholic. He had Father Hannigan over once a month for dinner. He wanted to do this right. He didn't want there to be any sort of cloud hanging over their life together. He decided to take another tack. "I guess you're right. You're not really the type who could pull off a traditional Catholic wedding. You know, big white dress, large wedding party, a hundred or so guests, all staring at you as you enter the church and walk down the aisle. I get it, you want some small thing, on a beach, with the wind blowing sand up your skirt."

She eyed him suspiciously.

"Or, I mean. We could go to the Empire State building on New Year's Eve, and stand up there in the freezing cold while a bunch of strangers stare at us, your pea coat totally covering up your Vera Wong dress."

"Vera Wang."

"Or, maybe you really do want to go to Central Park. Surely a pigeon won't shit on your head. That won't happen at all. It's not like there's a lot of pigeons in New York."

Mindy put her phone down. "This is important to you?"

He nodded, feeling slight trepidation. "I guess I don't really care where we get married, but I do need to know one thing.

He waited. 

"This church of yours, does it have stained glass?"

He nodded.

"The kind where when the sun streams through it, it casts these stunning jewl-toned patterns on the crisp white dresses of brides getting married? Especially those brides that look totally stunning both in white and all jewel tones?"

He nodded again.

"And Father Hannigan, he doesn't care that I'm not Cathlolic?"

"Not particularly."

"Not particularly?"

"Well, I mean, he's priest, Min. He's kind of paid to care, but it won't stop him from marrying us with a smile." He reached for her, pulling her close. "Plus, he adores you anyway, tells me every time he has dinner with us, that it's his life's mission to convert you, even though he knows it's futile. He loves you that much."

She smiled at Danny. "And your mother, do you think she'll forgive us for living together if we get married in a Catholic church?" 

Danny grinned at her. "Well, Ma's got ideas about a lot of things. I think she's already forgiven us, seeing as how she's already picking out baby clothes."

Mindy smiled, laying her palm on the side of his face. "Danny, I've never really cared about where I got married. As long as it's to you, it really doesn't matter to me. And besides, a Catholic wedding sounds perfect. She pressed a kiss to his lips. "Did you know I love you?"

"Yes, but I love hearing you say it."

"I love you, Daniel, I love you so so much."

He laughed and scooped her up, carrying her through the door to his bedroom. She smiled up at him as he crossed the threshold. "A preview?"

He laughed. "Maybe we could get to working on that grandchild for my ma. Get a real reason to push the date of the wedding up?" His eyes were twinkling.

She swatted at him. "You're mother would never forgive us." She was grinning widely. "But, there's no harm in practicing." She squealed as he tossed her into the bed and dove in after. Practicing was amazing.


	3. It's Not Easy Being Green

Hell yeah she looked like a woman. She spun in front of the mirror, still naked, having just emerged from the shower. Curves in all the right places. Sure, sometimes she was insecure, who wasn't, but it was never very hard pull herself back up and appreciate that she was a beautiful, no hot, woman.

She smiled. It didn't hurt that Danny had noticed. Definitely didn't hurt, especially since she'd been noticing him a lot lately too. He'd say something to grab her attention, and for the first second after looking up from her file, she would be surprised by just how attractive she found him. It would punch her in the stomach. That attraction was weird to her, because for a very long time she'd never viewed Danny that way.

He'd always given off this irritating air of superiority, which she'd found extremely off putting. It was only now that she realized she found it so distasteful because she'd always sort of agreed with it. There was this nasty little voice in the back of her head sometimes, mind you, not a lot, but sometimes that would pipe up when she was dealing with an attraction to someone she felt was out of her league.

Out of her league. God, she cringed at the very phrasing. That stupid niggling thought sometimes overtook her, and it pissed her off, because come on, she was a young hot doctor. Successful too. No one was out of her league. When she'd first met Danny it had popped into her head, and he'd done nothing to erase it by telling her she needed to lose weight and insisting that he was smarter than her.

But now something was different. Danny complimented her. Not only did he compliment her, but he did it on a regular basis, telling her she was smart, and that she was a good person. And now there was this most recent thing. He basically told her he liked the way she looked, like, really liked. He'd seen her naked twice. Three times if you counted his one attempt to prove to her that they had no personal relationship. So it wasn't' just a friendly, "hey, you look nice." There were definite undertones.

She smiled, fully aware of the fact that she was hot no matter what Danny said, but still feeling a little vindicated that he'd finally admitted it to himself.

She skipped out into her room to get ready for the day, still thinking about the earnest look on Danny's face when he'd told her what he really thought.

* * *

They were at the office, and yes, it was a little bit awkward, but not like she'd thought. It hadn't taken them very long to slip back into their normal mode of interaction. They were even having lunch together in his office.

"I just don't understand why you would do that. Buying your groceries online seems like such a stupid thing to do. Especially when you live in the middle of the city."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm a busy lady, buddy. I don't have time to walk up and down the aisles looking for my particular brand of cereal. What if they move it to a different place? Then I have to go hunt some sixteen year old box boy down and ask him where it is, then listen while he rolls his eyes and points me in some random direction. Online. It's just, type it in, click it, put your credit card number in. Voila! It's at your house in a couple hours."

"Wait, you don't order all your groceries at once? You order one thing at a time?"

"I order what I want when I want it. As a modern woman I've learned to embrace the luxury of instant gratification."

Danny palmed his face in exasperation. Before he could say anything his phone buzzed on his desk. He picked it up, a small smile on his face and she replied to a text message.

Mindy squinted at him curiously. "Who is that?"

"None of your business. Nosy."

"You know you want to tell me. So just do it." She took a drink of her diet coke. "You know what, never mind. It's probably just a wrong number that you've struck an unlikely friendship with, even though you've never met this person. You feel some weird connection, because he's also a single guy in New York who shares your hatred of deep dish pizza."

Danny snorted. "What the hell are you talking about?" He tucked his phone into his pocket. "And just so you know, deep dish pizza is a misnomer. That's not pizza. Not at all."

She set her coke down on his desk, leaning forward in her chair. She didn't know why, but his little smile when looking at his phone earlier unsettled her. "Who was it Danny? You've piqued my curiosity. I didn't know you had any friends."

He sighed. Fine. He'd give her what she wanted. "Gina."

Mindy waited for Danny to continue, but he just stared at her. "Gina who? Gina what? Who is this person?"

Mindy tried to soften the sharp edge of her words. What was happening? She felt the sudden urge to clench her jaw, but instead took a deep breath. Relax Lahiri, you're being weird.

Danny was uncomfortable, but definitely not disappointed to hear the sharp tone in her voice. "We've been kind of seeing each other lately."

"Lately?" She was surprised when her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. "How lately?" God, that didn't even make sense.

"We've just sort of been casually seeing each other for the past month?"

"Casually? Month?" The volume of her voice was disproportionate to what her reaction should have been.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing. What's wrong with Gina? Why aren't you dating her for real?"

"What? I am."

"No you're not. You're using her for casual sex. That's disgusting Danny. You're not in college anymore."

"Whoah. Relax. Why do you care?"

"I don't. I mean, I do, but not like that. I care on behalf of all women."

"Fine then."

"Fine then what?"

"I'll date her 'for real,' does that make you happy?"

She stared at him, mentally cursing herself. This is not what she wanted at all. "Yes, yes it does. Thank you Danny for taking the necessary steps to be a considered adult male."

She settled back in her seat, a thoughtful expression on her face. Danny pulled his phone out of his pocket and began texting again. "There. I just asked her if she wanted to go have dinner tonight."

Mindy played with the cuff of her sleeve, not looking at him. She felt extremely conflicted. When Danny has said he'd been casually hooking up with some girl called Gina, she'd felt a hot and unrelenting flood of jealousy wash over her, and she'd tried to channel that intense feeling toward something else. Indignation on behalf of all women had seemed like an easy path to take, but it had backfired so completely that she was lost. She felt her throat tighten up and swallowed. "Make sure you change out of that awful outfit before you meet her."

His mouth fell open. "What's wrong with my outfit?"

"Ugh, Danny. Dad jeans, a corduroy jacket with leather elbow patches, and a baggy button up. Not exactly a GQ quality outfit. You look like Steve Jobs right now, and not in a good way." She picked her coke up again and sipped on it, not taking her eyes off him. "Unless Gina's an old lady, in which case, you could probably work with what you got."

"Oh, Mindy, thank god you're here. What would I do without your fashion advice? I've had soooo much trouble getting laid on my own these days." His voice was thick with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.

She shrugged. "Hey, you think you know what men like, I think I know what women like. Just saying."

Danny looked down at his phone. "Fine. Whatever you say. I'll go home and change first. Lunch is over, my next appointment will be here in ten minutes." He gathered up the mess on his desk and deposited most of it in the trash.

Mindy rose, turning to the door, but Danny's voice stopped her before she slipped through it. "Mindy." She looked back at him, her face graced with an open expression. "Thanks. I actually do think it's time for me to try dating again."

She nodded, unable to say anything, and left his office.

Later, seated at her desk, she stared off into space, trying to decipher this churning in her stomach, this tightness in her chest, this sudden hatred for the name Gina. Oh shit. She was jealous and she had no idea what to do about it.


End file.
